Vietbodia, Pt 1: Ho Chi Minh City

When people ask me about my South East Asia trip I usually say, “It was really good. When it wasn’t hilariously bad.” It was pretty much the tagline of our whole adventure. Between the scams (which ranged from harmless price hiking from cheerful coconut vendors, to outright credit card fraud) and the food (from amazing seven course meals to poisonous salad sandwiches), we managed to experience the highs, lows and everything in between.

To start with the bad? I didn’t get my passport back in time from the Vietnamese Embassy and couldn’t fly out with the other girls. A last minute Thai Airways flight, and a very kind father, meant that I met them three days late in Ho Chi Minh City.


It certainly was a surreal way to start the trip. 6 hours on my own in Melbourne Airport, followed by an overnight flight in which I dreamt that I was on an overnight flight. Except that we were all in fancy dress, and I won a prize. I was dressed as sleeping beauty. I made friends with the middle aged lady sitting next to me: “Did you have a good rest?” she asked when I woke up. I said yes, and apologised if I'd been snoring.“Oh not at all!” she said smiled kindly, “I think you had a good sleep.” I began to think of her as Aeroplane Mum after that. She and her husband were travelling to India.

Bangkok airport. The first shop I see is selling life size porceline dogs in bonnets. 10 kilometres of high end shops follow. Areoplane Mum and I keep running into each other on the way to our next gate. “Isn’t it all so fancy!” she says.

One more flight, passing wordlessly through militaristic airport security, and finally, finally, I meet up with my girls in Ho Chi Minh City. In the taxi from the airport the city seemed huge and nonsensical. The traffic was extraordinary; crossing the street was like stepping into a river.

Our hostel was tucked down an alley that reminded me of Melbourne; tiny shopfronts, bicycles, balcony gardens. It was also five metres away from the cheapest, and best, Indian food I’ve ever eaten, and fifteen metres away from an amazing french bakery.

Yes, that is a dragon and a horse in the background. My first great Vietnam food monent - and the first meal I ate in Vietnam - was pond week. Pond weed, or Morning Glory, or Water Spinach, Ong Choy, Kangkung, Pak Boong, as it's variously known, fried with garlic and served with sticky rice. Absolutely delicious. I got more than halfway through before I remembered to take a photo.

It inspired me to go searching through my local asian grocers to see if I could find any. Happily, I live just across the road from the Dickson shops in Canberra, home to at least 7 asian grocers, two of which are Vietnamese. I went and got promptly distracted by herbs and rice paper. So today I have a fresh rice paper roll recipe for you, and a promise to keep you updated on the search for Morning Glory.

Rice Paper Rolls

These guys are seriously easy, healthy and delicious. This is a very basic recipe; feel free to play around with fillings, sauces, marinades - try them with some prawns and avocado, maybe! There's no limit, just think of them like sandwiches.

What You Will Need

A lovely Asian Grocer with a good selection of fresh greens.

Vermicelli Noodles
Cabbage
Cucumber
Carrot
Beansprouts
Your favourite firm tofu - I love Soyco's Japanese Tofu.
Rice paper
Sesame oil
Vietnamese Mint

What you need to do:

Julienne the vegetables and the tofu to the length of the radius of the rice paper
Soak the vermicelli, drain, and toss in about a tsp of sesame oil
Soak a rice paper sheet
Lay on a clean tea towel
Place noodles, vegetables, tofu and mint in a row closer to one side than the middle

Fold over the right side; than the top and bottom; and then roll to close. The rice paper will adhere to itself.

Serve with soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, or any manner of dipping sauce. I like peanut soy, which is roughly: some peanut butter, half as much soy sauce, a squeeze of lime, a shake of chili seeds, a tsp grated fresh ginger, and a couple of minced garlic cloves.

An easy, delicious, and healthy dinner. Or, pack some for lunch, and enjoy the envy of your co-workers. Goodness, all that and I'm only one day in. More of Vietbodia to come...

Hail Mary, Full Of Grace

I've just whiled away a few lovely hours at Melbourne's wonderful Abbotsford Convent. I'm sunburnt and a little sleepy, my fingernails are filthy and I *think* I have goat poop on my tights, but poop notwithstanding I really can't recommend this place enough. Historic buildings, beautiful gardens and plenty of lawn space just perfect for spring frolicking! Farmer's markets, food and drink, antiques, galleries, and the Collingwood Children's Farm just next door. Perfect Right? Right.

Best Lunch Ever! Mighty healthy hangover cure from Lentil As Anything - read about Lentil, they deserve your support

Nature. Turns out it's pretty gosh-darn good

Freshly squeezed OJ icypole - totally worth the sticky fingers

View from The Collingwood Children's Farm

Sleepy baby goat, he and I shared some cuddles

Cranky Sheep, don't mess with him

The beatiful Convent grounds

Today was simply perfect. If you haven't paid the nuns a visit recently I urge you to do so as soon as possible.

Sunday Morning Glory

As I mentioned in a previous post, when it comes to breakfast I'm not your traditional toast-or-cereal kinda gal. In fact, I can't remember the last time I had cereal, and I intend to keep it that way. The last breakfast-themed-post was something to eat when you're on your way out the door. This one is for those weekend mornings where after sleeping in, breakfast turns inevitably into lunch. The mushroom recipe I stole from my sister many years ago, and have been enjoying ever since. Couscous is a much loved staple in my house, stemming in part from my aversion to toast. The poached eggs - well. You may have your own method of poaching eggs, if so, I encourage you to go for it. But I have tried for years to get that perfect poached egg without any luck. I've tried swirling the water, different kinds of vinegar, everything. And then I discovered cheating...

Marisa's Mustardy Mushrooms, and Easy Poached Eggs

What You Will Need:

• One (or two) fresh free range egg(s)

• 8-10 button mushrooms

• 2 tsp dijon mustard

• 2 tsp mustard seeds

• 1 tbsp sour cream

• A dash worcester sauce

• Olive oil

• Butter

• Couscous (or bread, if you so wish!)
  

What You Will Need to Do:

• Heat about 1/2 tbsp of butter in a fry pan.

• Slice mushrooms and add.

• After a couple of minutes add mustard and mustard seeds. Stir to make sure all the mushrooms are coated.

• Add the sour cream and dash of worcester sauce. Stir. You should have something like a sauce at this point. Let it bubble away on a low heat while you make your eggs.

• You'll need to give it a stir everyone now and then. The sauce should cook down until it's sticky and creamy, and some of the mushrooms are browning.

How to Poach Eggs (the cheating way)

• Put glad wrap (or cling film) over the top of a cup or mug, ensuring that it is concave enough to hold a large egg

• Rub the plastic with a bit of oil

• Crack the egg into the plastic, and gently bring the edges together so that the egg is sitting in a little pouch, ensuring there is a pocket of air at the top

• Twist the top together, and peg it closed

• Tie your little egg bundle to a spoon handle long enough to rest on top of a pot of boiling water, ensuring that the egg will be completely submerged (but not touching the bottom or sides of the pot. That will end badly, trust me)

• Lower into boiling water, and let cook for 3 - 5 minutes, or until done to your liking
  

• Unwrap and voila - perfectly cooked, smooth, round, restaurant quality poached eggs. No messing around with whirlpools or vinegar required!

A couple of minutes before the eggs are done, prepare couscous.

I never bother with the whole saucepan, bringing things to the boil deal; just add your cous cous to a measuring cup and double the volume by adding boiling water . (ie, for 1/4 cup of couscous, add enough water to bring it up to 1/2 cup.) Stir with a fork, and cover for a couple of minutes. It's done when the water has been fully absorbed.

Remember that butter you saved by not frying your eggs? Yeah, we're going to use it now. Stir about a tsp through the couscous. If you've never liked couscous, you probably were missing this crucial step. Butter makes everything nice.


Pile everything on a plate, poached egg on top, and go to town, my friends.


It may seem a bit involved for breakfast, but if you know what you're doing, this recipe can easily be made in under 10 minutes. And it's worth it - trust me.

Herby Pasta Salad (or, what to eat when you want to feel healthy but haven't been...)

This Easter long weekend was not, for me at least, one of virtue. Rather, it was expensive, involved all together too many pink mojitos, and resulted in a five star hangover that had me feeling sorry for myself well into sunday afternoon. I have often found myself wolfing down a fast food hamburger after a big night out, usually in an attempt to fill my churning stomach and fight off that nasty, empty hangover feeling that sadly often punctuates my weekends. Something greasy and cheesy generally hits the spot, although once the hangover has cleared and I'm stashing my oily fast food wrappers in the bottom of the bin, I'm always left feeling guilty, unhealthy, and usually pretty darn gross.

Enter my new favourite recipe! It combines two of my all time favourite ingredients: pasta and cheese - and both in liberal quantities - making it suitable hangover food, yet it also contains enough roughage to look and taste nutritious too. I'll admit it wasn't what I was craving as my headache slowly lifted last sunday evening, but I made up a big bowl full for lunch on monday. The fresh herby goodness that this dish is built on restored in me a certain healthy feeling (a feeling that I speculate was lost somewhere between my first glass of white on thursday evening and my fourth mojito in the early hours of Good Friday.) A healthy feeling... exactly what's lacking after a big weekend on the town. So with your wellbeing in mind, may I present:

Healthy Herb Salad
(or more truthfully, a salad to prepare when you want to feel healthy, but secretly crave big piles of cheese and carbohydrates)

What you will need:

• 1 1/2 cups of pasta, preferably something small like risoni, macaroni, or darling little pasta stars (as pictured)
• 1 bunch each of fresh dill, mint and basil (this seems like a strange combination of herbs, particularly if you don't like dill. I don't like dill, but I love this salad.)
• 200g brown lentils (tinned ones are fine if you can't be bothered with preparation of dried ones)
  
• 1 small red onion
• 200g feta cheese
• A generous handful of pitted black olives
• Two or three tablespoons of red wine vinegar (for a sort of dressing)
• One clove of garlic
  
• A little cracked pepper to taste
  

What you will need to do:

Preparing this meal is so simple that it almost doesn't require neatly dot-pointed steps, but I'll stick with clearly outlined instructions, just so my Inner Delia Smith (read: my inner obsessive-complusive) doesn't baulk at the sight of a disorganised recipe.

• Cook pasta, drain and set aside
• Boil lentils (unless you're using tinned ones) and set aside
  
• Roughly chop all herbs and throw them into a big salad bowl, removing any stalky bits
• Finely slice red onion, chop olives, crumble feta and add the lot to salad
• Stir through pasta and lentils, add red wine vinegar and crushed garlic clove and mix through, Season with a little pepper
• Serve warm or cold

This recipe was given to me by my sister, I think it was originally thought up by one of her clever friends. It's a delicious mix of heavy, filling comfort food and fresh, light salad. The dill isn't overpowering, but I think it adds a certain strength of flavour to the dish that the other herbs don't, and let's not forget: cheese and pasta. It's so darn easy, and it's definitely the sort of recipe that can be played around with. Try it with parsley if basil isn't your thing, or substitute the dill for something a little less powerful. Easy as pie, and it's a whole lot better for you than a cheeseburger.

Aside from a particular Simon and Garfunkel track, I can't come up with a herb themed musical tie in to end this post, so I'm going to finish up with these delightful new(ish) video releases from my two favourite New Pornographers. They're my musical food of choice, very good for your ears. I particularly love the new Neko clip, it's oh-so-pretty. Kinda like her.

The Palace at 4am (A.C. Newman)
People Got A Lotta Nerve (Neko Case)